Your Inheritance

There are more than 900 billionaires in the world. Perhaps the most well known in America are Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Warren Buffet ($47 billion). In 2010, 10 billionaires passed away, leaving giant fortunes to family members. For wealthy Americans, 2010 was a good year to die rich since the estate tax had expired. Is your dad rich?

Some people become wealthy as heirs of their parent’s fortunes. Theo Albrecht, a grocery baron from Germany, died in 2010 at age 88, leaving his two sons $14.4 billion—making them new to the Forbes billionaire list.

Sometimes, sorting out who gets how much is messy. Two new Brazilian heiresses spent a decade fighting in court with their deceased father’s widow over their inheritance. The widow was 40 years younger than the daughters’ father and married him four months before he died. The daughters won in court. Their father, Amador Aguiar, founded Banco Bradesco, one of Brazil’s largest banks.

When the children of Israel came to the Promised Land, God divided the territory up and gave each tribe an inheritance. In Joshua 18 and 19, the remainder of the land was divided up and distributed. Jesus likewise promises us, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).

The writer of Hebrews says of the patriarchs were pilgrims on the earth, “but now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country” (Hebrews 11:16). There is a heavenly Promised Land that we may look forward to because we are heirs of Christ, who died to assure us of our inheritance.

Is your Father rich? Actually, your Father is very rich. Your heavenly Father owns everything in the universe. And God is now preparing a special place for you, an inheritance beyond measure.

Key Bible Texts

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (Galatians 4:4 KJV)